Michael, you’re on target with lib language overuse. But sit here is much worse.
Do you realize that Trump and MAGA recognize no authority, jurisdiction, or legal document greater than their will to rule?
They control voting in both houses of Congress, SCOTUS, the DOJ, all Federal Agencies, are bent on eliminating the DOE, NIH, DoD, FEMA and making all Federal posts via patronage. It is all laid out in the Project 2025 document and Trump's first week pronouncements.
Farm laborers and food processors are on the run and not in the fields nor chicken or hog plants.
No Hispanic kids going to school because they fear parents will be gone when they get home. Immigrants with jobs are hiding in sheds and garages. California oranges rotting on trees.
The peril is at least equal to the feverish and hate-driven secessions leading to the civil war. A heavy fog has fallen over this land.
getting bad out there Michael - Hegseth said he would have America’s back and I actually felt somewhat comforted that he didn’t say libs I’m coming to get you. weather announcer in Milwaukee tweeted negatively with salty language about the Muskheil, was read and complained about by local right wing radio pundit - called her for “vulgarity” which after Trump’s campaign, dick jokes, fellatio faking, c*&t calling etc seems like closing the barn door several months after the horse is nicely settled in Palm Beach - her station fired her - while from the Dems everywhere, crickets- well I do get a spry and soothing ask for money from Chuck Schumer in email every other day or so - good, critical article!
Want to say the darkest hour is just before the dawn ... but sunrise is stil a few hours off so the darkness will get thicker. that said, everything's transactional and the coalition that elected him is not particularly loyal, they will vote for somebody else/anybody else in a few years ... assuming there is an election that is.
I meant to add this link and then forgot to copy it! Just about 48 hours or so ago, a panel at Davos through the Pinchuk Foundation was presented and it might be of interest to your readers.
Always appreciate the long view you take Michael. Thank you. I would say that while what we're experiencing is not exactly Germany 1933, it feels and echoes like it. I have read a book you may have heard of - Defying Hitler: A Memoir by Sebastian Haffner. I won't go into his biography but his memoir, written in the form of notes/chapter/etc was found by his son after his father died in 1999, and it was published in 2003 - A year or so earlier in Germany. Mr. Haffner (which was the name he wrote under his entire life as a journalist, essayist, commentator) describes in excruciating detail how the regime worked on the psychology of people almost without them realizing what it was doing. At the time he was writing these reflections down, it was 1939 and he had been able to immigrate to England where his wife, a Jew, was already living with one child, and pregnant with the son who would eventually take these reflections and turn them into a book. I cannot recommend this book too highly, if only to see from the vantage point of a young person in their 20's what the whole social/political experience of the National Socialists coming into power felt like and how it gradually took over vast numbers of the population. Insidious to say the least. As Timothy Snyder states, Rule #1 "Do not obey in advance". That is by far the key rule because the 19 rules that follow in his book On Tyranny depend on that FIRST RULE being the bedrock. Doing that does not depend on the folks we've elected (we will be utterly disappointed there I'm afraid). It depends on each of us. Over-reach as long as no one is calling this crowd out will continue until the over-reaching has reached everyone. The lawlessness is the point. The cruelty is the point. The stupidity is the point. I realize I am suggesting books, but this one also ought to be a must read - "After Ten Years: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Our Times" - edited and introduced by Victoria J Barnett from Fortress Press and part of the International Bonhoeffer Society English Language division (do not read Metaxas' biography - it is white christian supremacy propaganda that uses Bonhoeffer for its own purposes). This book, After Ten Years is short - 34 pages - a letter written to his family from prison at the end of 1944, less than 3 months before he will be executed, 5 months before the surrender in May 1945. It is important to know that we're living in a very serious, significant, and dangerous moment for the US and the world, the world of our allies. This person took the office by barely 1.1%! There was no landslide. The "president" may be signing documents but he has farmed his brain out to Musk and Miller and Vaught and the Heritage Foundation. So getting real about where we are is incredibly important. That and having the balls to stand up and call the lies and the liar in chief out is really critical now.
Michael, you’re on target with lib language overuse. But sit here is much worse.
Do you realize that Trump and MAGA recognize no authority, jurisdiction, or legal document greater than their will to rule?
They control voting in both houses of Congress, SCOTUS, the DOJ, all Federal Agencies, are bent on eliminating the DOE, NIH, DoD, FEMA and making all Federal posts via patronage. It is all laid out in the Project 2025 document and Trump's first week pronouncements.
Farm laborers and food processors are on the run and not in the fields nor chicken or hog plants.
No Hispanic kids going to school because they fear parents will be gone when they get home. Immigrants with jobs are hiding in sheds and garages. California oranges rotting on trees.
The peril is at least equal to the feverish and hate-driven secessions leading to the civil war. A heavy fog has fallen over this land.
Like I say in the piece, the July 1st ruling by SCOTUS allows him to do whatever he wants. And by God, he's doing it!!
getting bad out there Michael - Hegseth said he would have America’s back and I actually felt somewhat comforted that he didn’t say libs I’m coming to get you. weather announcer in Milwaukee tweeted negatively with salty language about the Muskheil, was read and complained about by local right wing radio pundit - called her for “vulgarity” which after Trump’s campaign, dick jokes, fellatio faking, c*&t calling etc seems like closing the barn door several months after the horse is nicely settled in Palm Beach - her station fired her - while from the Dems everywhere, crickets- well I do get a spry and soothing ask for money from Chuck Schumer in email every other day or so - good, critical article!
Want to say the darkest hour is just before the dawn ... but sunrise is stil a few hours off so the darkness will get thicker. that said, everything's transactional and the coalition that elected him is not particularly loyal, they will vote for somebody else/anybody else in a few years ... assuming there is an election that is.
I meant to add this link and then forgot to copy it! Just about 48 hours or so ago, a panel at Davos through the Pinchuk Foundation was presented and it might be of interest to your readers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maVpWFWHKxI
Always appreciate the long view you take Michael. Thank you. I would say that while what we're experiencing is not exactly Germany 1933, it feels and echoes like it. I have read a book you may have heard of - Defying Hitler: A Memoir by Sebastian Haffner. I won't go into his biography but his memoir, written in the form of notes/chapter/etc was found by his son after his father died in 1999, and it was published in 2003 - A year or so earlier in Germany. Mr. Haffner (which was the name he wrote under his entire life as a journalist, essayist, commentator) describes in excruciating detail how the regime worked on the psychology of people almost without them realizing what it was doing. At the time he was writing these reflections down, it was 1939 and he had been able to immigrate to England where his wife, a Jew, was already living with one child, and pregnant with the son who would eventually take these reflections and turn them into a book. I cannot recommend this book too highly, if only to see from the vantage point of a young person in their 20's what the whole social/political experience of the National Socialists coming into power felt like and how it gradually took over vast numbers of the population. Insidious to say the least. As Timothy Snyder states, Rule #1 "Do not obey in advance". That is by far the key rule because the 19 rules that follow in his book On Tyranny depend on that FIRST RULE being the bedrock. Doing that does not depend on the folks we've elected (we will be utterly disappointed there I'm afraid). It depends on each of us. Over-reach as long as no one is calling this crowd out will continue until the over-reaching has reached everyone. The lawlessness is the point. The cruelty is the point. The stupidity is the point. I realize I am suggesting books, but this one also ought to be a must read - "After Ten Years: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Our Times" - edited and introduced by Victoria J Barnett from Fortress Press and part of the International Bonhoeffer Society English Language division (do not read Metaxas' biography - it is white christian supremacy propaganda that uses Bonhoeffer for its own purposes). This book, After Ten Years is short - 34 pages - a letter written to his family from prison at the end of 1944, less than 3 months before he will be executed, 5 months before the surrender in May 1945. It is important to know that we're living in a very serious, significant, and dangerous moment for the US and the world, the world of our allies. This person took the office by barely 1.1%! There was no landslide. The "president" may be signing documents but he has farmed his brain out to Musk and Miller and Vaught and the Heritage Foundation. So getting real about where we are is incredibly important. That and having the balls to stand up and call the lies and the liar in chief out is really critical now.